The question this month comes from a new user of the Performance Profile.  I selected this question because it’s a common one when a company first begins to receive Performance Profile reports.  In addition, I think this question also raises the broader issue of how to use the Professional Development Guide.  The question is,

“My company just started using the Performance Profile and I just hired a new manager who made a good impression in the interview.  My boss handed me something called the Professional Development Guide and said to ‘…go over it with the new guy’.   How do I do that?”

And The Answer Is:

Very easily; the Professional Development Guide is actually set up so that you can “talk” a person through how to use it by following the directions in the Introduction.  Once you’ve gone through the Guide with one person, you will see that the arrangement of information has built-in activities and opportunities for feedback.  Let’s take a closer look….

The Professional Development Guide Report

The Professional Development Guide is a training and development tool that gives an individual the results of his or her Performance Profile and provides a structured way to use this information to improve his or her management style and interpersonal skills in order to become more productive.  The entire Guide is customized for the individual, based on his or her responses to the Performance Profile.  It is written in a positive, growth-oriented way, and gives you a way to respond to the often-asked question, “How did I do on those ‘tests’ I took?”

Follow These Steps

Read through the Professional Development Guide to familiarize yourself with its structure, as well as to gain an overview of the new hire’s job-relevant strengths and developmental needs.  The conversation you have with the new employee about his or her Professional Development Guide can help to establish positive rapport between the two of you, help him or her focus on the areas he or she needs to work on, and demonstrate that you (and your company) are sincerely interested in his or her professional growth.  Use the following three steps as a guide for how to use the Professional Development Guide with the new employee.

1. Introduce the Professional Development Guide as part of your company’s commitment to the growth and development of its employees.  Include the following information when you present the Professional Development Guide:

• The Professional Development Guide provides information about Performance Profile results;
• The Professional Development Guide helps the person evaluate his or her personal strengths and developmental need areas;
• The Professional Development Guide shows how to use feedback from people who know the person well to improve professional effectiveness;
• The Professional Development Guide helps the person set up a simple Action Plan for the continuous improvement of his or her personal and professional effectiveness.

2. Follow up the first meeting with a scheduled second meeting to provide the employee with feedback about improvements you have seen, and where further effort is needed.  Be as concrete in your feedback as possible.
3. Use the Professional Development Guide in performance reviews to help the employee see what he or she needs to do in order to use personality strengths to improve effectiveness on the job.  When you conduct performance reviews, remember to focus on job performance, not on personality traits.  The Professional Development Guide will help the employee see how to use his or her strengths, and strengthen his or her weaknesses to improve job performance.

A Final Reminder

Remember, many people are sensitive about what they see as their weaknesses.  Therefore, always emphasize the positive, developmental aspect of the individual’s Professional Development Guide.  Specifically:

• Don’t say anything that suggests that the Professional Development Guide says that the person has a “bad” personality or that he is a “bad” person or that something is “wrong” with him;
• Don’t tease or “kid” the individual about his personality characteristics or about his efforts to improve;
• Don’t use personality labels (“You’re the High Assertiveness/Low Friendliness Guy” or “You will probably manage like Attila the Hun.”) Refer to job-relevant behavior instead (“I wonder if you were a bit abrupt with Charlie?”)

The candidate was applying for a sales position and had interviewed very well, appearing to be sociable and confident.  The interviewer had been very impressed with the candidate and was excited about the potential good he could do for the company.  When the interviewer read the Performance Profile Report, however, “red flags” flew and alarm bells went off.

The Interviewer’s Problem

According to the Performance Profile Report, the candidate was low in assertiveness (willingness to be straightforward and direct) and sociability (enjoyment of being with people for extended periods of time).  The interviewer knew that effective sales people are usually fairly high in assertiveness and sociability, for this combination produces the willingness to call on many people and, most importantly, to close the sale.  How could the interviewer’s impressions of this candidate be so different from what the Performance Profile Report says are his personal preferences?

Demand Characteristics In An Interview

A face-to-face interview is a pretty familiar situation to most job candidates;   they know that, in order to proceed in the selection process, they need to make a good impression on the interviewer.  The ways a person behaves, in order to make a good impression on an interviewer, are called “demand characteristics.”  That means that a person displays as much as he or she can of certain kinds of characteristics that are “demanded” in an interview, such as being friendly, answering questions directly and straightforwardly, and appearing relaxed around people (the interviewer especially.)

It’s Normal

Everyone does it;   it is normal for candidates to try to make a good impression by “accentuating the positive” and by making an effort to be pleasant and get along with the interviewer.  Most candidates’ “look good” personas differ somewhat from day-to-day behavior on the job.  The problem for the interviewer usually comes about when the very characteristics that he or she is trying to evaluate, because they are essential to success in the specific job, are the ones that tend to be artificially elevated or improved by the candidate during the interview.

The Troublesome Threesome

It turns out that certain personality characteristics are easier to conceal during an interview than others.   A person’s objectivity (that is, sensitivity to criticism, ability to avoid getting his or her feelings hurt), friendliness (that is, ability to genuinely enjoy extended contact with people, to work at getting along with people, and to be considerate and thoughtful), and assertiveness (that is, willingness to be direct and straightforward, to speak up appropriately) are the three characteristics that most often seem different to the interviewer than what the Performance Profile Report shows.  Most candidates’ familiarity with the interview process enables them to anticipate likely questions and “rehearse” answers, and the interview interactions are usually short enough that the candidate can overcome personal preferences that otherwise are more difficult to change, such as shyness, or unwillingness to ask and answer questions.

Face-to-Face Is Different From Face-to-Computer-Screen

The Performance Profile, from the candidate’s point of view, is a long series of questions that are usually answered when the candidate sits alone, staring at a computer screen.   That change in the “demand characteristics,” along with the design of the questionnaires themselves, allows the candidate to relax his or her “on stage” behavior and answer more from his or her “gut.”  The candidate can forego the inherent demand that he or she put the best foot forward that is present during an interview, and so he or she may answer questions according to his or her inherent preference, rather than according to what might sound better during an interview.

In addition, the Performance Profile includes technology that automatically measures the degree to which the person is trying to “look good” in the way that he or she answers the Performance Profile questions.  The scoring protocol then adjusts each characteristic, depending on how the person’s “effort to look good” affects that characteristic.  As a result, the Performance Profile Report gives you a highly accurate reading on the person’s actual preferences, without the interference of the demand characteristics of an interview.

What Should The Interviewer Do?

First of all, remember that there does not have to be a perfect "match" between your interview impressions and the ratings on the Performance Profile Report, but you should pay attention to any really large discrepancies.  Second, if there is a large discrepancy, consider that characteristic carefully:  how important is that characteristic for success on the job?  What are your expectations for job performance that might be affected by this characteristic:  make a list and be as specific as possible.  Third, re-interview the candidate and pose a couple of hypothetical situations that focus on the characteristic but are open-ended.  Let the candidate talk about the situation for a while and evaluate his or her answer carefully.  For example, if it is a sales candidate with a low sociability rating, you might say, "Making calls on potential customers is a pretty tiring activity.  What do you do if you feel like you are tired of talking to people but you have not yet met your quota?"  Finally, make your company's behavior expectations clear so that the candidate knows what you expect; if you hire the candidate, use the Professional Development Guide as an opportunity to help him or her recognize the impact of the characteristic on his or her performance, and develop an Action Plan that will compensate or strengthen performance.